A new home, part 1

It might seem quiet around here these days (quiet as a mouse), but quiet it is not.  We are moving, you see (moving to a new house).  I've been working hard to arrange our move as well as keep up with all my clients as winter comes to a close.  Tons of prep work for the upcoming shooting season.

Now that Elisha is 14 months old and we are two weeks away from our big move, I finished his nursery today.  A friend (way back at baby shower time) asked me to take pictures of the nursery. I never did because it was never complete.  But today, it is. I finally finished by painting the toychest to coordinate with his room. And oh how I love free paint (and where I got the paint - Habitat for Humanity ReStore).

 

As we prepare for our move, I am painting furniture with free paint and testing colors (and finding them not quite what I expected).

  

We have empty shelves and boxes as well as shelves filled with boxes, and we have even more boxes than that. 

 

 It's cardboard everywhere.  Also free. I love free things!  At the suggestion of a friend, I went to Pier One and got nice, clean boxes from their cardboard dumpster that are the perfect size for moving and not packing too heavy.

Purple Lemon Photography is moving, and we're getting packed and ready to go.  You might be wondering where we are moving, but that is another tale to be told. We'll show you around real soon.

By popular request

I received a phone call yesterday in which someone (you'd better be reading this, friend) said, "You should put more pictures on your blog, because I am bored."

Even though I do actually have something to post, I'll wait until another day and leave you with this.

The aforementioned person also knows that I, ever since the time I was with child said, "I want to take pictures of my baby in black."  Black bodysuits are hard to come by- but she found one.  About a year later than I'd hoped, but here it is nonetheless.  And- I love babies in black.

Unveiled

Valentines weekend, I was showered with love. But not just from my husband and family.  There was some Purple Lemon love being spread around, and I was so honored!

Some of my dearest friends on the planet (and most loyal clients as well), threw a "purple lemon photography party" to unveil their art that I created for them in December.  Complete with purple whipped cream and lemon bars, this delightful evening blessed me so much.  They had decorated with my lemon logo, yellow and purple this and that, and pictures from almost every shoot I've done for them and their family, so everywhere I turned I saw my vision turned reality.

Thank you for blessing me, for supporting my work, and encouraging me every step of the way.  This could not have come at a better time, as this week we celebrate that one year ago I shot my first wedding as owner of my own business.

Beautiful Bedhead Baby

In the mornings we have a slightly chaotic routine, mostly because I do not want to get out of bed.  The last step of our routine, before I decide that being trampled upon is too rough that early in the morning, is for my son to climb on my bed, over me,  and look out the window.  Today, there was snow and some trucks outside, so his attention was rapt for quite some time.  And I had to get up and at 'em to get our car fixed bright and early.  (It's done, by the way, but I do not want to walk back to the car place in the snow quite yet. Maybe later).

All that to say, Eli was awake, and cute, and the light was great, and I was actually standing up.  My favorites from our early morning session.

I think this one looks like me when I was a baby.  What do you think, Mom & Dad?

I think he's beautiful. Bedhead and all.

Just Messin'

As a kid my mom always said something about me.  She's "just messin'...", mom'd say.  It was true.  And it still is.  Though a young woman full of drive, passion, and very much intentional in my approach to most every aspect of my life, you can still find me, on occasion "just messin'." 

Today has been a bit of a long day, and it's only about 3:30 pm.  When you get up before six with a wired kiddo and there wasn't a whole lot on the calendar to begin with- and your kiddo isn't old enough to do much of anything, your day quickly dries up of activity.

So I resorted to a bit of messin' in Lightroom (the amazing software I use most of the time for all my photo needs).   When I was in high school we had a very experimental approach to our photography as art; and I have maintained that love for experimental creations.  One of my teachers said that, in art, at least, it's not a mistake if you make it intentional.

I took these concepts into my photography in two ways- first, I like to take the logical "outtakes" or "bad" pictures and make them into something out of the ordinary.  I find that often my "mistakes" (pictures with poor exposure, weird lighting, funky this-or-that) are often the favorites of my clients.  I make them "intentional" by taking a great composition or expression on a face and allow that to be reason enough to save it, work it, and create something fresh and new.

Secondly, I love to play around as a way to learn and a way to create.  Now, granted sometimes it gets me into trouble because I can't easily recreate if I tried, but that's ok. It keeps things one of a kind.

Played around with the sliders in Lightroom on one of the "outtakes" from this shoot a few weeks go, and voila!  Something to brighten up this dreary afternoon.

Leave me some comments and let me know what you think of this photograph of painted footprints.

Playing Ketchup

I have a lot of little things that I have been working on posting today. And I guess this is the last of it.

 

New Blog Design

A huge thanks to my husband for a lot of hard work.  He gave our blog a complete re-haul and gave Purple Lemon Photography a fresh face!  Great job, Brian- I love you!